John Saah, the deputy commissioner and chief of public safety of the Liberia National Police (LNP), accused of authorizing the flogging of a Police Inspector Mark Kardamie for having extra-marital affairs with the commissioner’s fiancée, has been charged and forwarded to the Monrovia City Court for prosecution.

Saah, together with Superintendent Kais Sampson, Chris Doe and Rodney Macauley of the Major Crimes Unit, are currently standing trial for the commission of the crime of aggravated assault. Earlier, Associate Magistrate Eric Cooper had written Police Inspector General (IG) Patrick Sudue to have the defendants attend the court’s hearing into the matter.

A document, addressed to IG Sudue, and obtained from the court by the Daily Observer, supported Magistrate Cooper’s claim about the refusal of the accused to appear before the court, despite numerous communications from the court for them to do so.

Officer Mark Kardamie, while treating wounds he sustained from the flogging.

The communication, dated June 28 and signed by Associate Magistrate Cooper, requested IG Sudue to disrobe and turn the officers over to the court on July 2, but that request Sudue allegedly failed to honor.

“These officers are currently before the court for trial for the crime of aggravated assault, but have appeared in court in their official police uniforms contrary to our laws regarding appearance of offices before court for trial,” the letter claimed.

Cooper’s letter complained that Saah and his men, though they were released after posting US$5,000 bond, failed, refused and neglected to appear before the court to commence their case.

The case against Saah and his colleagues stemmed from a letter written to Police Inspector-General Sudue by Senator Thomas Grupee of Nimba County, also chairman on the Senate Committee on National Defense, Intelligence and Veteran Affairs , in which the lawmaker informed Sudue to conduct an immediate probe of Inspector Kardamie’s complaint against Saah and the other officers.

“I mandate that you launch an immediate investigation into the matter and furnish the committee with your findings within a week, upon receipt of this communication as the nature of the case involves the image of the LNP, which is one of the prominent concerns of the committee,” Grupee’s letter, dated May 21, 2018, said.

It was based on that communication that Sudue launched an immediate investigation that led to the imposition of aggravated assault charges against Saah and the other officers.

Before Grupee’s letter demanding an immediate investigation, on March 27, Kardamie complained to Sudue against Saah and Sampson, accusing them of committing unethical breaches of his rights.

That communication was ignored by Sudue, which led Kardamie to write a letter of complaint to Sen. Grupee. The action led to the subsequent charges against the accused that includes Saah.

In that complaint, Kardamie explained that his ordeal started in 2016, when he and Sampson transacted the sale of a Black Camry vehicle, which Sampson refused to pay. Therefore, Kardamie decided to lodge a complaint against Sampson to then IG Gregory Coleman and the LNP’s Professional Standards Division.

In his complaint Kardamie claimed that Saah had also accused him of being in ‘extra-marital affair’ with his fiancée (not named).

Kardamie also claimed that he does not know the lady in question.

“Because of that, I have been humiliated and subjected to torture by the two senior officers,” Kardamie’s letter to Sen. Grupee alleged.

Kardamie explained further that in 2016, while on his way home from the United Methodist University (UMU), where he attends, before reaching the Ashmum Street’s Metro 2 Police Depot, Superintendent Sampson approached him and inquired whether he had received his money from the LNP’s Professional Standard Division, where Kardamie had lodged a complaint him about his refusal to pay for his vehicle.

While he and Sampson were conversing about the transaction, Kardamie claimed that Sampson swore to not pay him a penny.

Afterwards, Kardamie alleged that Sampson gave orders to the other officers to get him out of his sight “because I was disturbing him, so they beat me unmercifully.”

At that moment, Kardamie claimed that one of Sampson’s bodyguards, identified as Mack Kollie, held him from the back and they started beating him right in front of Sampson, who stood there without saying a word.

In the process of breaking loose from Sampson’s men, Kardamie claimed that Saah arrived on the scene and began to hit him on his head with the handset radio that caused him to bleed profusely from the head.

“When I lay on the ground bleeding, Saah ordered that I be dragged from in front of the police depot which the officers did,” Kardamie claimed in the letter.

Kardamie also said that Saah and Sampson told him that they know IG Sudue personally and, as such, whatsoever they would do, nothing will come out of it.

After the incident, Kardamie claimed that he wrote IG Sudue on March 27 and made several follows-ups, but to no avail. It was when Kardamie claimed that Sudue set an April 13 date for them to meet him at his conference room.

Unfortunately, Kardamie alleged, Sudue through one of his female officers, told him about the cancellation of the Sudue’s called meeting.

Since then, Kardamie claimed Sudue, through aware of his complaint, was yet to reschedule the meeting.

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